The Merchants & Manufacturers Exchange Building was planned as twin twelve
story buildings at a cost of $,3500,000 each. It was built over a sunken
railway, along forty sixth and forty eight streets and Lexington, by the New
York Central Railroad and the New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Housing
spaces for wholesale merchants, its ground floor was planned as a convention
centre to rival Madison Square Garden, while a summer garden and restaurant
was planned for the roof.